The Internet and our Social Conscience

Cecil the African Lion

This week, the news has been dominated by public outrage. A dentist from Wisconsin went to Zimbabwe, hired a company of guides & trackers, and proceeded to track and shoot a male African Lion. Let me begin by stating that I am personally disgusted at the "sport" of trophy hunting. I don't understand the thrill of killing an animal for sport.

The story continues with the discovery that the lion has a name - Cecil. He was wearing a tracking collar that allowed a group of Oxford scientists to track and study the lion. He was not held captive in any way, and was free to roam the African plain - to the researchers, that was the point.

But the focus of my attention now is on how the world is reacting. As news of this horrible tragedy unfolds, the dentists has become the intense focus of a social media smear campaign. He and his family have received all manner of threats. People have shown up to protest at his dental clinic, which he has been forced to close.

Without due process, he is now at the centre of a trial in the Court of Public Opinion. There are no rules, no appeals. The Internet has become Judge, Jury and Executioner.

We have seen many instances of this, where the online group who calls themselves Anonymous threatens to leak stolen, potentially damaging documents to the public unless the victim (the RCMP in British Columbia, for example) capitulate to their demands.

What gives the Internet, where faceless cowards express outrage hidden behind the anonymity of an avatar, the right or privilege to judge other people so harshly ? It's one thing to draft a petition, gain signatures and ask a governing body to intervene. But it's entirely another to publicly shame and incite violence.

If this were a proper trial in the Courts, there would be mountains of evidence, a judge & jury, clear charges of what laws have been broken, and procedures to follow which insure a fair trial and due process. This man isn't getting any of that - his life is being destroyed, and he has no means to protect and defend himself.

Please, let me state again - I personally think his actions are despicable. I want to see him brought to Justice. But I also want to see him get a fair trial. Just because we don't like something doesn't mean we can skirt due process and exercise Internet Vigilatism.

 

 

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Rush, Rush, Rush...

No, not the famous Canadian trio of Geddy Lee, Neil Peart & Alex Lifeson (although they are awesome !). Rushing is the bane of the amateur photographer ! In this day of digital photography, it is way too easy to hurry and not think about setting up your shot.

For example, look at these two photos:

This one has the white balance set for a sunny afternoon, about 5000 degrees Kelvin. See how yellow it looks ? I look like I have jaundice or something !

 

This photo has had the white balance corrected to indoor, flourescent lighting, about 3200 degrees Kelvin. Notice how it looks a quite a bit lighter, and more natural ?

 

 

 

 

 

In fact, both photos were taken with flash & a 1/2 Green gel to compensate for the lighting. But because I had the white balance set up wrong - because I was rushing - all the photos were like this. Thanks goodness it was an easy thing to correct in post-processing !

Note to self - Stop. Check EVERY setting before looking through the lens...

 

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Food Porn: Making Sushi !

Pat and I always prefer to make our own dishes, rather than buying "store-bought" or processed foods. It allows us to control exactly what we eat, while giving us plenty of opportunities to play in the kitchen. And who is surprised that I would want to document the process in what I like to call "Food Porn".

After laying the Nori (dried seaweed) out on the mats, sticky rice gets laid out. It's not really easy to deal with, so rubber gloves and a drop of oil helps out - a lot ! After that, your fillings go in - this photo shows crab meat, cucumber, sliced peppers and srirachi mayo for zing.

The process of rolling the sushi is a bit of a pain, but Pat has it down to an art form. By rolling it out onto a sheet of cling wrap, it also wraps it up to finish setting up in the fridge.

Here's a finished sushi roll. The sticky rice is still warm when you roll them up, so afterwards the rolls go into the fridge for a short while to finish up. Then they can be cut into individual pieces of sushi.

Four cups of sticky rice makes about 10 rolls. We made different kinds, featuring crab meat and smoked salmon. The vultures ( ahem, teenagers) are already circling !

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My Photo Mojo

Sometimes I find myself feeling like I'm losing my creative mojo. I really caught the photography bug when I realized that it appealed to both the technical side of me as well as the "left brain" side. I follow a few photographers blogs and am slightly in awe of the many projects they undertake.

But lately, I seem to struggle with it. There is this whole notion of being able to "see the light" because after all, that's what photography really is, isn't it? I'm not sure what I can do about it. Most blogs remind me to shoot often, regardless of technique or style, just to keep the juices flowing.

So one of the things I have been doing is going through my photo catalog and comparing some of my older work to my more recent images. I definitely see a difference in the way I have approached post-processing, although I highly dislike the notion of "tweaking" my photographs. Sometimes it just can't be helped.

So I guess what I am trying to say here is that I am searching for my muse. As this blog progresses, you may see some odd photos, as I try to regain my Photo Mojo. Stay tuned...

 

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Humour as a Value-Add ?

My bio picture

My team is finally getting an opportunity to present our Technology Architecture Roadmaps to the Leadership Team. Aside from the presentations (have I mentioned how little I enjoy presenting slide decks - give me a whiteboard, please !), we are also putting together some leave-behind material for them to ponder.

Part of the material includes a brief bio of the presenters, who we are, our backgrounds, and a description of what our value-add is to the company. Oddly, my boss didn't find it at all amusing when I described my role as "Comedic Relief" !

So when I actually think about what my value-add is, I envision a brief discussion of my experience, my qualifications, and my contributions to the success (or failure, I suppose) of the companies I have worked for. But why isn't my sense of humour a value-add ? Isn't humour a way of getting people to relate with you, to encourage interaction and collaboration ?

Maybe I'm looking at it wrong, I dunno. What do you think ?

 

 

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Monday Morning Musings

Another peaceful morning on the Covered Porch. I sip coffee while the pre-dawn light morphs into the golden hour. It's a quiet moment of "me time" as I sit & reflect on the things that are important in life...

I was bidding yesterday on a new (to me - it was built in 1962) film camera. I was excited at the prospect of taking my photography to the next level, only to have lost the bid - it closed at just under twice my budget.

But it gives me pause to realize that I don't need a new camera to continue my journey, but rather to change my approach. Like an excited little kid, I grab my camera and dive head-long into a new project. Instead, all the blogs I read tell me to slow down, to think about what I want my final photo to look like, and work the process backwards.

It dawns on me that my photography is like my relationships. They need to be nurtured in a thoughtful way. I recently read that there are two important features to really communicating in a relationship. We all know the requirement for people to communicate, to ask the question "What is it you would have me understand ?". This is key to listening to the other person, rather than simply parroting back your own feelings.

The second part is more important, the part we most often miss. Your partner may say to you that she wants you to be more "romantic". I don't have the faintest idea what that means ! Is it soft music & candlelight ? Is it getaway weekends for two ? Rather than trying to divine your partner's intent on your own, ask the second question: "And how would that look to you ?". The results are often surprising.

I'm fortunate to share my life with the woman of my dreams. Although we don't always communicate very well, we try very hard to listen to each other, for each others sake. I may never own the medium format camera of my dreams, but I am also learning to be very happy with what I have - a trusty camera that suits my needs, and the love of a good woman to share my days with.

 

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The Covered Porch

Oh how I love the long summer days in Calgary ! The sun rises around 5AM, and doesn't fully set again until almost 11PM. And my favourite place to spend long, lazy afternoons ? The Covered Porch, of course !

So long as the feeder is kept up, the cheep-cheeps will keep us company, giving me plenty of opportunities to fool around with my camera. They flock to the feeder in droves, providing lots of entertainment to Petrol & Diesel, who run from window to window trying to get a better vantage-point.

About the only negative thing about the long summer days is that I rarely stay up late enough to put my patio lanterns (with apologies to Kim Mitchell) to much use.

 

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RUSH Concert in Calgary

Pat and I don't usually go in for the "Hallmark Holidays", but this year we gave ourselves a Valentine's Day gift. We bought tickets in February for the RUSH R40 tour !

The Saddledome is very fussy about allowing cameras into the venue for events, but they allow "non-Pro" cameras, such as iPhones, to be used. The light show was phenomenal, and this is one of my favourite pictures.

Of course, there are tons of tributes to Rush, this is how RUSH opened the second act: http://youtu.be/Eh_9NY56Sxw

The crowd was transfixed - when they weren't air-drumming !

 

 

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Bless me Blogger, for I have sinned...

Bless me Blogger for I have sinned, it's been over a year since my last post...

OK, so now I've gotten that out of the way. It's high time I started blogging again. I don't have a specific purpose in blogging - for a while it was an online confessional, like the first line of this post. For a while I was using it to chronicle a failed 365 day Photography project. For now, I'm going to simply NOT categorize these posts, and let's just see what it morphs into, OK ?

The past year has been challenging - life changes so rapidly, it's amazing we humans can keep up or even cope ! But there has always been constants - work, home-life, friends and (most importantly) family. But we are here, we are healthy, and we are alive ! That's got to count for something, right ? I think rather than turning this blog into a series of whiny posts about what's wrong with the world, and my opinions thereof, I shall choose to instead celebrate all the good things life has offered me.

As many of you may well know, I am an avid amateur photographer. So you won't be surprised when my posts are littered with my photography ! I'm also a fairly social creature, so I tend to share a lot via Social Media. Is anybody going to be surprised if I choose to liberally mix the two ?

I read somewhere (I read voraciously) that a rich man knows to invest his time and energy not in things, but on experiences. This has struck me profoundly, so follow along as I share these experiences here...

 

 

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